“My Uncle Dr. Duncanson,” said MacPhee “whose name may be familiar to you – he was Moderator of General Assembly over the water, in Scotland – used to say ‘show it me in the word of God’. And then slap the big Bible on the table” (C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength)
If you are like me, this pen portrait in three lines rings rather too true for comfort. C.S.Lewis has picked up something about the Reformed character and portrayed it perhaps a bit too accurately. This negative way of silencing arguments with “It says in the Bible” and then glaring at anyone who dares to argue ready to declare them a heretic or worse.
Don’t get me wrong there are times when it can be used to advantage as well. I can remember an Episcopalian priest (American) on Iona commenting shortly after Church Hymnary 4 had come out about the fact that several of Kathy Galloway’s hymns were included with their strong feminist imagery. I then pointed out that they got through because the imagery was not just feminist but also Biblical and therefore fine. It was in the Bible therefore it was fine to use.
Then there is the security blanket approach. When I did TLS Pastoral Care, one of the questions was, would the course involve lots of Biblical material? The answer given was positive, as I would have expected from a Church of Scotland dominated course. But that reassurance was sought and given makes me feel that just by using bits of the Bible made the course safe.
Now I know it is the first of the five Protestant Solas (by scripture alone, by faith alone, by grace alone, through Christ alone and to the glory of God alone), that for the Reformed the Bible is held to be the final standard for faith. I don’t want to change that, but I wonder if using the Bible as a club to hit people with, as a cover to get things through or as a safety device to make sure nothing dangerous is happening is actually using it with integrity. I want however to suggest another picture that of a magic looking glass. That is the Bible mainly tells us about humans and how they relate to God, but through that we catch an image of the reality of the divine. It is as George Herbert wrote:
On it may stay his eye; Or if he pleaseth, through it pass,
And then the heaven espy.”
